The Magic Portal

The Magic Portal was one of the first brickfilms to ever be made by Lindsay Fleay. It is the most well known of early Brickfilms and took 4 and a half years to complete from 1985 - 1989, using borrowed equipment and a borrowed camera as well as funding from the Australian Creative Development Fund. Lindsay originally recieved a Cease and Desist letter from The LEGO Group after showing the film, although this was later retracted.

On a ship somewhere in space, an astronaut named "L" discovers a Magic Portal which takes anyone who walks through it into a strange world. "L", his shipmate "P", and their boss "Captain Paranoia", go on a wacky adventure to all kinds of crazy places.

According to Lindsay they were planning on entering "The Magic Portal" into as many festivals and competitions as possible, but first decided to send it to the LEGO group to see if they wanted anything to do with it. The first letters they received from LEGO were positive ones, but over the course of months they started to express legal concerns and eventually sent a letter demanding all copies of the film be confiscated. In the end, the LEGO Group backed down from their legal action and the film was saved using a release from LEGO Australia sent to them in the very beginning.

Despite the LEGO Group's original reaction to the film, they referenced it in The Lego Movie, released years later in 2014. There is a long tube in the film that is used as a portal, named, appropriately, "The Magic Portal."